Background information

The institution of state of emergency, followed by a state of alert led to the closing down of several economic activities. Several companies have been obliged by law to close their activities. Other companies were not obliged by law to interrupt their activities, but the consequences of lock down made the interruption necessary. In some cases, companies have postponed the payment of the rent. All these facts led to a reduction in the income of the companies and difficulties in payments. In order to support the economic recovery, the Government announced in May 2020 tax facilities for payment of the annual building tax or building charge of those entities that have been hit by the effects of the COVID-19 crisis.

In October, the Government came with a new proposal (Government Emergency Ordinance 182/2020), which prolonged the term until which the annual tax on buildings can be reduced, upon request, by up to 50%, for non-residential buildings used for economic activity.

Content of measure

In 2020, the local councils and the Municipality of Bucharest General Council may adopt decisions until 2 December 2020 regarding:

• Reduction, upon request, of the annual tax on buildings by up to 50%, for non-residential buildings used for economic activity, owned by individuals or legal persons, if during the state of emergency and / or alert their owners or users were obliged to cease entirely their economic activity or hold a certificate for emergency situations issued by the Ministry of Economy, Energy and Business Environment.
• An exemption has been introduced from the payment of the monthly building tax for building users obliged to interrupt their economic activity during the state of emergency and / or alert period.

Use of measure

There are no official statistics regarding the number of beneficiaries of this measure.

Target groups

Workers	Businesses	Citizens
Does not apply to workers	Applies to all businesses	Does not apply to citizens

Actors and funding

Actors	Funding
National government Local / regional government	No special funding required

Social partners

Social partners' role in designing the measure and form of involvement:

	Trade unions	Employers' organisations
Role	Unknown	Unknown
Form	Not applicable	Not applicable

Social partners' role in the implementation, monitoring and assessment phase:

• Unknown
• Main level of involvement: N/A

Involvement

The draft of the Government Emergency Ordinance have been sent to the Social and Economic Council, which is a social dialogue body, formed by representatives of trade unions, employers organizations and civil society, which have issued an opinion, according to the legal provisions.

Views and reactions

No public position or view has been expressed by the social partners.

Sources

• 22 October 2020: http://legislatie.just.ro/Public/DetaliiDocumentAfis/231726